Case Number 14137

THE COUNTERFEITERS (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

It takes a clever man to make money, it takes a genius to stay alive.

Opening Statement

"Why make art in order to make money when you can just make
money?"

Facts of the Case

In the 1930s, Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovichs) was one of the world's
greatest counterfeiters. He could replicate seemingly any paper bill using the
equipment of an amateur, and for several years he enjoyed the benefits of this
profession. However, when Sorowitsch tried to reproduce the mighty U.S. Dollar,
he was captured by the Nazis and sent to a prison camp. He managed to survive
there for five years by using his skills as an artist, painting flattering
portraits of the Nazi guards and their families. The prison camp was a brutal
place, but Sorowitsch managed to make himself as comfortable as possible given
the surroundings. He is disappointed when he hears that he is being transferred
to another prison.

This prison is run by Sturmbannfuhrer Herzog (Devid Striesow, Eden),
the very man who captured Sorowitsch several years earlier. Much to Sorowitsch's
surprise, Herzog proves to be even gentler than his previous captors. He
provides Sorowitsch and dozens of others with comfortable beds, cigarettes, and
other small luxuries. All he asks in return is that Sorowitsch and a team of
Jewish prisoners duplicate the Pound and the Dollar to perfection. If they fail,
they will all be killed. If they succeed, they are helping the Nazis win the
war. Sorowitsch doesn't need much time to think about this. He determines that
every man must do what he needs to do to survive and gets to work on the
project. He is confronted by Adolf Burger (August Diehl, Slumming), a
fellow prisoner who views the project as a moral outrage and is constantly
subverting it. Sorowitsch would never dream of ratting on a fellow prisoner, but
he doesn't want to get killed, either. Carefully, he attempts to walk an ethical
tightrope, hoping that the Allies will crush the Nazis before he falls off.

The Evidence

It's admittedly tempting to dislike The Counterfeiters, a film that is
practically begging for some sort of critical backlash as it hits DVD and
Blu-ray. The film was surprisingly nominated for Best Foreign Film of 2007 by
the Academy, and even more surprisingly was selected as the winner of that
category. I've only seen a handful of the noted foreign films from last year,
but I must say that nearly all of them were superior to The
Counterfeiters. Even if the movie does deserve to be taken down a peg or
two, and even if it is a rather shamelessly blatant attempt to woo awards
voters, I can't honestly say that it's a bad film. No, it's a pretty good film,
and it's worth watching.

I suspect that The Counterfeiters might have made a stronger
documentary than a film. The facts presented here are nothing short of
fascinating, and the basic story is very compelling. Initially, the Nazis
planned to use the money to drown the Allied economy, overloading both America
and England with an unwanted deluge of dollars and pounds. As the war progressed
and things got worse for the Nazis, the plan changed. They couldn't afford to
wait for foreign economies to sink, they needed to simply use the money to buy
more weapons and resources. While the Jewish counterfeiters were facing the
dilemma of how quickly to succeed in their task, the Nazis were facing the
dilemma of figuring out how to make the prisoners do what they wanted. Was
gentle coaxing or harsh brutality the more effective method? The frightening
questions being asked in this story had real-life consequences, and they provide
some real food for thought.

The performances were ignored by the Academy, but they are the elements of
this film that actually do deserve to be recognized. Lead actor Karl Markovichs
is a revelation as Sorowitsch, with a hard and rugged face that typically says
more than the character does. He fully embodies the role, and August Diehl
provides a nice idealistic balance as Burger. The scenes these two share are
strong points in the film, as these two compelling men weigh the pros and cons
of idealism and self-preservation. However, the performance that really stands
out here is Devid Striesow's turn as Herzog, the Nazi prison camp leader.
There's a frightening sweetness to Herzog that is far more chilling than the
simplistic cruelty of the other Nazis in this film.

The hi-def transfer spotlights some of the film's unfortunate technical
aspects. The movie is shot in a "gritty," super-grainy, handheld way
that supposedly lends some sort of dramatic credibility to these otherwise clean
and sanitized proceedings. It's hard to tell what's intentional and what isn't,
but I'll give those responsible for the transfer the benefit of the doubt and
just assume that the film is supposed to look kind of crummy. The sound is
certainly solid, featuring a soundtrack littered with evocative tango pieces.
The special features are pretty generous. A commentary from director Stefan
Ruzowitzky probably has more "uhs" and "ums" than I've ever
heard in such a track, but it's got some nice info. A 10-minute making-of
featurette is here, but that's nothing compared to the lengthier interviews with
Ruzowitzky, Markovics, and the real-life Adolf Burger, which run about 38
minutes combined. There's also an additional 20-minute lecture from Burger on
life in the prison camps. A 13-minute Q&A with the director from a film
screening suffers from weaker audio, but it's pretty good. Finally, several
deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer wrap up a very solid batch of
supplements.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

It's difficult to make a successful film about the Holocaust. If you make a
film that is morbid and tragic, attempting to capture the full weight of that
horrible event, you risk alienating a lot of potential audience members. If you
make a film that is humorous or exciting, you risk charges of taking your
subject too lightly. The Counterfeiters attempts to ride the line as
carefully as possible to avoid falling into either camp. This causes yet another
problem: the film feels far too calculated. There are a lot of scenes here that
feel restrained from honesty, simply because they are not willing to move too
far to one side or the other.

Additionally, The Counterfeiters starts to flounder whenever it moves
away from its core ideas. The "dramatic" sequences bookending the film
(featuring Sorowitsch gambling at a glamorous casino) feel oh-so-phony, far more
like a screenwriter's attempt at adding depth than a scene from a real life. At
its worst, The Counterfeiters plays like a bad version of The Great
Escape, borrowing the usual clichés and contrivances from a whole host
of prison movies. The scenes featuring the sadistic Nazi guards are tiresome; we
really don't need to be convinced that Nazis are bad at this point. Herzog
aside, the bad guys aren't permitted any complexity, lest we ever think that
they are human beings.

Closing Statement

While this is hardly Best Foreign Film material (the Academy has a history of
making poor decisions in that particular category), The Counterfeiters is
an interesting look at a little-known part of WWII history. It's worth seeing,
and really a shame many will probably hate it for simply failing to be more than
it is.